Tuesday, March 19, 2013 3:26:37 PM@jonswan12 - I think you missed my point. Show me where I said I was "unimpressed" and I'll gladly post a video of myself playing anything you want.

My first comment was pointing out that people who have never touched a guitar would be way more impressed than someone who has been playing for X amount of time. No where did I say that I was "unimpressed." I also said, "It still is pretty damn cool though to see such a young kid who has an attention span long enough to get to that level. To me, that's what's amazing about this!"

My second comment is pointing out that it is, in fact, true that with enough practice it's not as hard as it appears at first. Do you not agree with that? Once again, nothing in that comment was hinting at being "unimpressed."

Maybe you should try to not read into comments made by people on the internet who you don't even know and quit whining.

I've been playing the guitar for 17 years...I think you missed my point. Obviously, if you practice enough you can play like that. My point was that to be unimpressed is ridiculous. That's like saying, Michael Jordan is good at basketball but I'm not impressed because if I practiced enough I can be just as good. So let me ask you this: You've been playing guitar for 24 years? Post a video of you playing what she just played and I'll eat crow. I'm sure you can just play it by ear because it's just scales and arpeggios.

Tuesday, March 19, 2013 10:53:42 AM@5Cats - Close, as far as having or not having talent you have to have something there. I've noticed some people just kind of have an ear for it and take to the guitar (or any instrument) like a fish to water, others don't. My siblings are a perfect example, I picked up a guitar and a got a book to learn a few chords and scales and then just taught myself the rest. I had only one formal lesson, which I walked out of after I told the instructor I wasn't there to learn how to play Mary Had a Little Lamb or f*cking Jingle Bells. I then taught myself to play by ear and by watching other guitarists I looked up to. I tried teaching both of my brothers and neither of them could do it no matter how hard they tried, they had absolutely no musical ability whatsoever.

Tuesday, March 19, 2013 9:22:10 AM@WhoDat: I did a little thinking and came up with: 3 Keys To Playing Guitar: #1 Get a guitar #2 Practice, practice, practice #3 Have a little talent (optional)

I met a guy who taught himself how to play ONE tune on piano (Canadian Rag). He'd broken his leg one winter (in PRE-internet days) and was so bored he simple practiced that one tune for 2 months until it was ingrained in his "body memory"...

Monday, March 18, 2013 7:33:22 PMThis is not really talent. Anybody can shred. Talent would mean she could play a song using complicated chords. Let's see her do a ballad and improvise on that. Notice that there is a lot of repition here - big deal!

Monday, March 18, 2013 5:08:59 PM"I'm seeing a lot of people saying that this isn't impressive because if you practice long enough you can do that too. You know how ridiculous that sounds."

I can't speak for anyone else but I've been playing guitar since my 10th birthday, I turned 34 the other day, so I've been playing for 24 years. I said that because it's true, once you learn your basic scales and progressions and learn your way around the fretboard you can increase speed and get better. Before you know it you can do that sh*t in your sleep. Therefore, it is not a ridiculous comment, it's a fact. Ask any guitar player if you don't believe me. Your comment is the ridiculous one.

Monday, March 18, 2013 4:45:45 PMTalent is the ability to absorb the lessons and utilize the training more effectively. In plain english, talented people need to practice and train less. It does not mean that they do less work, the most talented musicians start to concentrate on finest details, often getting completely stuck or lost for years while trying to hone one minute detail that no one can even notice. Or inventing new techniques that prove to be a deadend mission. And talented people have flaws too but they may identify them better, find solutions or work around their issues.

Monday, March 18, 2013 2:07:33 PMI'm seeing a lot of people saying that this isn't impressive because if you practice long enough you can do that too. You know how ridiculous that sounds. I also love how when it involves the guitar, it's no good unless it has 'feeling' What the hell does that mean? If a violinist was shredding some Paganini I'm sure nobody would say "dude, it's no good because it's not the blues. It's got to have feeling" And Crakrjak - Yngwie has sausage fingers and he shreds in his sleep so it's not the fingers that allow her to play like that.

Monday, March 18, 2013 11:49:24 AM@patchouly - Agreed. While it is amazing to someone who's never touched a guitar, it's actually not that hard to "shred" like this. All you have to do is practice playing scales up & down the fretboard. You start of slow and once you have the scale committed to memory you gradually increase your speed and you're there.

It still is pretty damn cool though to see such a young kid who has an attention span long enough to get that level. To me, that's what's amazing about this!

Monday, March 18, 2013 11:31:01 AMNice to see such a young guitarist getting serious. And it's natural for young players to be dazzled by speed (I remember the first time I heard Jimmy Page's solo to "Good Times, Bad Times" -- my jaw dropped). Hopefully, she'll also be exposed to players like Carlos Santana and Leslie West, who never indulged in technical pyrotechnics, but instead played beautiful, melodic, memorable solos, really displaying the beauty of which the electric guitar is capable. Ditto Roy Buchanan and Danny Gatton.

Monday, March 18, 2013 10:58:22 AMpatchouly: It also helps that she has long skinny fingers there too. I've seen that guys with short fat fingers would have a hard time 'shredding' like this, because one would have to contort their neck hand fingers around.

The four fingers of her left hand are maybe 3" wide, a guy with 4" wide hands would have a harder time, 5"+ wide hands fugggetaboutit.

Would be like trying to play Mozart on the piano with hulk sized hands.

Monday, March 18, 2013 9:18:47 AMpatchouly: I have to disagree. The word talent describes ones particularly amazing level skill and technique. She has that.

You can play a piece exactly like this one here with passion, verve and joy and make it ring clear through your notes. A lot of people don't believe that but it's true. Simply playing something melodic and using vibrato doesn't mean you're playing with feeling.

I can play a scale which, for all intents and purposes is a practiced riff, with vibrato and a clean tone and most people would think its deep and meaningful. Quite similarly, I could play that same scale quickly and they might think I'm playing without emotion.

Emotion comes from the passion for your art. If she truly wants to play guitar, then what you've just heard should sound just as passionate to you as any other piece in the world.

Monday, March 18, 2013 8:55:59 AMFirst off, amazing job! If she keeps it up, you will be hearing about her in the future.

Now...I know I'll get a lot of flack for saying this, but it really shows how little talent is involved in this style of music. Shredding is nothing more than practicing the same riff again and again until you can play it fast. It is very different from playing a style of music that requires feeling.

It's like any art discipline. Most people can learn to paint landscapes but only those with real talent can really paint art.

This girl has done an amazing job at "landscapes". I hope she keeps it up and learns to really paint.